Nina and Cole had crossed lines before — soft ones, playful ones — but this was different.
The house buzzed with low music and anticipation, lit in soft amber tones that made skin glow and secrets feel safe. People milled around in various stages of undress and interest, each wearing a colored bracelet: green for yes, yellow for maybe, and red for no watching, no waiting — I’m here to play.
Cole wore green.
Nina wore red.
Their hands stayed linked until they didn’t.
It started on the couch.
A woman with dark curls and honeyed skin slid in next to Cole, laughing at his joke, her knee brushing his. Her partner — tall, relaxed, wearing only loose linen pants — approached Nina with a slow smile.
“Okay if I touch you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she breathed, glancing toward Cole — who gave her a slow nod just as the woman beside him kissed his neck.
From there, the party unfolded like silk — slow, smooth, unstoppable.
Bodies moved. Boundaries blurred.
Nina kissed the woman Cole had started with, hands in her hair as Cole watched with wide, hungry eyes. Then he was kissing her too, the three of them tangled together in a heat of hands and lips.
Another couple joined — a man with arms like carved stone and his wife, curvy, golden-skinned, eyes bright with curiosity. The woman took Nina’s hand and pulled her to a padded bench, trailing kisses down her shoulder while Cole was pressed against another man, the lines of pleasure and permission long since blurred.
Nobody asked twice. Nobody touched without consent.
But once it was given — it was all in.
Hands roamed, mouths found new places to worship, and laughter mixed with moans in a symphony of pure, permissive indulgence.
Cole saw Nina everywhere — in front of him, on her knees, in someone’s arms, head thrown back in bliss — and it didn’t make him jealous. It made him burn. Because she always looked for him after each wave passed, as if to say:
Still mine. Still yours. Still us.
Hours later, they lay tangled on a wide bed with three other people, limbs intertwined, hearts thudding in the quiet.
Nina turned to him, lips swollen, skin flushed. “So?”
Cole laughed softly, breathless. “I think I found new parts of me tonight.”
She grinned, resting her hand over his heart. “Me too.”
And neither of them felt empty.